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US stocks rise as Wall Street eyes French vote

About 20 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 20,437.61, up 0.2 per cent. ― File pic NEW YORK, April 20 ― US stocks rose early today with strong earnings from American Express offsetting a disappointing report from Verizon as the market looked ahead to Sunday’s vote in the French presidential election.

A note from Wells Fargo said the gain in French stocks as the result of better polling data for centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron was supporting Wall Streetequities.

Still, the closeness of the polls has created the potential for a runoff between far right leader Marine Le Pen and hard-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon.

That would be “pretty much the worst-case scenario since both candidates have an anti-euro disposition that would raise a lot of concerns about the fate of the European Union,” Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare said.

About 20 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 20,437.61, up 0.2 per cent.

The broad-based S&P 500 also gained 0.2 per cent to 2,342.64, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.4 per cent to 5,885.95.

Dow member American Express jumped 3.2 per cent after reporting that first-quarter earnings were US$1.34 per share, six cents above analyst expectations.

But Verizon Communications lost 2.0 per cent after reporting that first quarter earnings dropped 19.8 per cent to US$3.6 billion (RM15.8 billion) as it lost 307,000 wireless subscribers during the period. ― AFP